The present invention relates to decoys and more particularly to deer tail decoy and its use.
Heretofore, numerous decoys for attracting deer have been proposed. Most of these decoys attempt to replicate the deer with the tail portion being only a small part of the over-all design. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,692 to Byers disclose a deer decoy comprising a plastic body having opposed sides, each side simulating the rear end of a standing deer. A tail is associated with each side. The tails are mounted on a common shaft for bodily rotation about an axis near their upper ends such that the tails are gravitationally biased to normally hang in a position simulating a natural relaxed condition of repose. An exterior pull string and/or a mechanism within the body is controlled to move the tail relative to said body out of the repose position. The body is made of solid foam plastic or hollow and of two substantially identical halves joined together. The deer decoy body includes recesses defining downwardly open channels along each leg portion of the body rear end and a rod is telescoped in each channel for engaging the ground to support the decoy in standing position spaced above the ground. The decoy is three-dimensionally sculptured to lifelike scale along X and Y dimensional coordinate axes at a scale greatly reduced form the X-Y scale along main decoy viewing Z axis so as to appear abnormally thin when viewed along the Z axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5, 791,081 to Turner, et al disclose a deer decoy for attracting an animal such as a deer into close proximity of a waiting hunter. The device includes a deer shaped main body member including a head portion and a rear portion. A pair of ear members are rotatably mounted to the head portion and are rotatable between a friendly position and a challenging position. A tail member is pivotally mounted to the rear portion and is pivotable between a first position and a second position to simulate the tail movement of a live animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,017 to Bany et al disclose a flexible, self-supporting decoy for wild game which requires no wind to inflate and which maintains its shape even under heavy dew or rain showers. When used for birds, the decoy may comprise as few as three pieces, namely, a stake, a windsock-type body of flexible yet self-supporting material, and a fastener. The body may be rotatably supported about a stake by the simple expedient of an opening in the lower portion of the body large enough to pass over the stake and a second opening in the upper portion too small to pass over the stake but large enough to receive a fastener with a head or flange large enough to secure the body. Such decoys may be quickly collapsed for transporting or quickly unfurled for decoying, will move with the wind, and are lightweight, durable and effective.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 325,617 to Smith discloses a design for a deer tail decoy, employing a deer tail apparatus which is bolted onto a surface, to simulate the presence of a deer, which oscillates up and downward in the wind.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 370,972 to Dutton discloses a design for a solid deer decoy using the whole portion of the deer and what appears to be a rigid tail design.
Notwithstanding numerous attempts to create deer decoys more effective in attracting the attention of deer, the current decoys fail to effectively simulate the movement of a deer tail to a sufficient degree to attract and maintain the attention of deer.
The present invention provides a deer tail decoy possessing an enhanced efficacy in attracting and maintaining the attention of deer. The deer tail decoy is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and is designed so as to simulate the social communication of a deer""s tail and the natural movement of a deer""s tail. The deer tail decoy comprises a standard support for supporting, a flexible light colored background pattern, and an inner dark inlaid pattern bordered by the outer light background pattern. The outer lighter colored background pattern and the inner dark inlaid colored pattern have a plurality of marginal cuts about their respective peripheral margins to create inner and outer flaps which are designed so as to flutter upon movement by wind. When mounted to a supporting site with a connective support, the decoy upon wind motion swings as a pendulum, rotates about its axial mount, ripples throughout its flexible structure and provides contrasting, flapping imagery, all of which emulate the natural movements of a deer""s tail.
The decoy may be rolled or folded and is easily stowable in a hunter""s pocket. If desired, multiple decoys could be carried in a single pocket. It is safe and presents little chance of injury to the user. The deer decoy effectively emulates the social communication and natural hair-like movement of a deer""s tail in motion without any attendant mechanical sound when activated. The deer tail decoy arouses the natural curiosity of deer and maintains the attention of deer to allow the hunter to more effectively target the animal.